-1 month ago: I hear some scratching from behind the refrigerator, sounds like it’s something scratching at the outside wall. As it’s 3 in the morning I ignore it.
-2 weeks ago: I leave an unpeeled banana on the counter. I come home and the banana’s half-eaten. I go to Home Depot and buy some of the green rat poison pellets that are supposed to make the rat(s) flee your home in order to find water before they croak. I put most of the pellets outside but toss one behind the refrigerator.
-1 week ago: I hear loud incessant scratching from inside the walls at 1 AM. I pound on the walls, scratching continues for 20 minutes then stops. The next day I pull out the fridge, I see that the pellet is gone and I can see a hole in the spray foam insulation (behind the waterpipe access panel) where the rat got in. I reseal it with steel wool and more spray foam.
-Last Tuesday I come home from work and smell something funky. I assume the trash needs to be taken out. On Wednesday I have a date, I go to the restaurant straight from work, we’re having a good time. I invite her back to my place to watch the World Series, we walk through the door and the smell is overpowering. I put 2+2 together and realize that I have a dead rat putrafying in the walls. Since this is a first date I can’t come clean (Fee free to badmouth me in the “Deception Gets You Laid” thread) about having a dead rat in the walls so I lamely say that something must’ve gone bad in the kitchen. I haven’t heard from her since.
And it’s gotten worse- trying to watch football on the couch this weekend was a chore, I had both doors and all windows open and the crossbreeze made it tolerable. But the temperature’s supposed to keep dropping… What do I do? it’s killing my already sad social life, making football watching from the couch difficult, and is stinking up my whole house. Any ideas? I don’t want to hang magic tree air fresheners all over my house a la Se7en.
[list=1]
[li]Get your household tool kit. If you ain’t got one, got to Sears & buy one.[/li][li]Get a wire coathanger. Untwist it into a straight wire, & use wirecutters/pliers to put a sharp hook on the end.[/li][li]Hi, Opal[/li][li]Get a plastic Trashbag[/li][li]Get a flashlight[/li][li]Get rubber gloves ( Optional )[/li][li]Move the Fridge[/li][li]Look into the hole to see if the dead rat is visible. If so, drag it out with the wire, & put it in the trashbag. Do Not Handle The Dead Rat With Your Hands![/li][li]If you cannot see the rat, fish around with the wire inside the wall. You might luck out.[/li][li]If all else fails, make a hole in the wall, & retrieve the rat. If you are gentle, you can remove sections of paneling or wallboard without damaging them.[/li][li]Next time, put rat-traps out instead. Preferably where you can reach them. Glue boards are good.[/li][li]Log live the Illuminated Order of Masons! Fnord![/li][/list=1]
The problem is that where he came in is right next to the sewer pipe- it could’ve ran up the pipe and then along the top. Where I heard the scratching (which I think was the death throes of said varmint) wasn’t near the access panel and isn’t really near any other holes I can use for that purpose. The drywall is less than a year old so I’m really against tearing it out. I bought an old-school rat trap at the sime time as the poison but wanted to try the poison first cus I thought the rat would run away from my place (like it claimed on the instructions). I’m trying to picture how the date would’ve gone if we had come back to my place and there’s a big juicy DC city rat squirming in the trap in my kitchen.
I’ve heard that quicklime might cover the smell, but does that have to be put directly on the decomposing body?
I recently renovated my (somewhere between 140 and 200 year old) house. When I took down the kitchen walls and ceiling I found many a mummified mouse (as well as copious amounts of mouse crap). And I once lived in a house that had a squirrel pass away in the crawl space. So I can vouch that the smell too will pass away. I’d say lay in a supply of stick-on deodorizers and maybe Yankee Candles, give it a couple of weeks, and try not to think too hard about the amazing cycle of life that’s taking place behind that 1/2 inch of sheetrock.
Mojo, I think if you brought me back to your place after a date and I saw the Se7ven air fresheners tacked to the ceiling I’d be more scared than if I saw a big juicy city rat in a trap.
If that didn’t scare you off, the lotion in the bucket probably would have:).
Finagle, My place is about 100 yrs old and I redid the framing and drywall about a year ago. I found lots of misc. varmint bones all over the place when I tore everything out so I sealed it up really well to prevent that from happening again. Obviously not well enough. I might try starting a fire in the fireplace and leaving the flue half-closed so the smokey smell covers up the putrefying smell. Any idea how long the stench lasts for?
Sorry, missed the part where chique said “about a week or so”. I hope I’m more than halfway there- it’s getting too cold to sleep with the windows open.
